February 28, 2003

The Rage of Reason

By DANNY POSTEL

A scholar argues that Enlightenment thought was shaped by its obsession with Judaism

For all their championing of reason, toleration, and individual rights, the heroes of the Enlightenment were not exactly enlightened about Jews.

A "vile people, superstitious, ignorant, and both scientifically and commercially stunted," wrote no less an Enlightenment icon than Voltaire. Such pronouncements were not out of step with the views of many other Enlightenment thinkers.

But in his

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